Bob Marvel 1911 Pistol Build Class

In the summer of 2013, I attended my first 1911 class at Montgomery County Community College in North Carolina. It was a two week class taught by Bob Marvel, one of the nation’s most renowned 1911 pistolsmiths, and the light bulb finally lit. I had been "gunsmithing" for nine years by that time, and due to the large number of "1911 guys" online at the time, I had avoided the 1911 believing that the field was saturated.

Little did I know that my knowledge of who was good was only surpassed by the number of those who weren’t. Once I understood the platform and what ‘right’ looked like I began a journey and a friendship which continues to this day. Bob Marvel taught at Montgomery County Community College from 2010 to 2016. After his time at MCC Bob began teaching exclusively at Deep River Custom in North Carolina.

Eventually, the sixteen hour trip from Nebraska to North Carolina and the long periods away from home became too onerous for Bob to continue. The good news is Bob has begun his own 1911 school in Nebraska and anyone wishing to learn from the master should really consider taking this class! Bob has a unique teaching style, he is no nonsense, and will dish out praise and critique with equal enthusiasm.

The depth of knowledge based on years of experience building world-class 1911s coupled with hundreds of thousands of rounds fired in research and testing pistols have provided Bob a level of knowledge equaled by few. Knowledge which he is very generous with. Bob’s class is a build class. In other words, components have been machined oversize to his specs and are final fit by hand. Nothing is "drop-in." A typical Marvel class begins with initial component inspection, slide to frame fitting, and barrel fitting.

This is followed by fire control components. Note, the accompanying list here is a basic outline and your class may be taught in a different order. Likewise, much of the knowledge passed on occurs during the process of the build, when An amount of blending is required to get them to a finished state.